Metal & Dust
by Anne Nye
Summary: Fox didn't ask to be an orphan. She certainly didn't ask to gain strange abilities as the product of child experiments, and she didn't ask for SHIELD to save her. But since all of those things happened anyway, why not try to make the most out of life? Starts during Avengers and continues through the movies, AoS and more.


So, I'm the first to admit, I'm far from being a very consistent poster when it comes to my story ideas and my chapters. I tend to be inspired very sporadically by my interests, but right now that includes the Avengers and the Marvel Universe, and I've had this story with my OC knocking around my head for a bit, so I've decided to give it a shot.

I know this kind of thing isn't everyone's cup of tea, and while criticism is welcome, if you are the type of person who hates OC relationship with canon characters I suggest you walk away now. The main focus of this is definitely friendship and familial bonds, though far in the future I do have a potential romance laid out.

Anyway, if you are reading, I hope you enjoy, and I'll do my best to make it worthwhile.

Disclaimer: I own no part of Marvel and make no profit from this story.

OoOoOoOo

Phil Coulson stood as calm as ever in front of the helicopter's steady approach. Upon landing, the blades barely even got a chance to slow down before the large door slid open, revealing Agent Hill, Director Fury and a third passenger he hadn't necessarily been expecting but also wasn't entirely surprised to see. The young woman was dressed simply in dark navy cargo pants, boots, and an outer jacket (sporting the SHIELD emblem) that was half-zipped up so it was revealing the black tank top underneath. He met the gaze of the approaching figures, though cast a brief, subtle smile to the last woman, which she returned, before his attention was solely on the director.

"How bad is it?" Fury asked, simply but there was no denying the certain edge to his tone as he walked up to him.

"That's the problem, we don't know," was Coulson's honest reply. The Director gave them all a sharp look before wasting no time heading into the building. Coulson easily fell in step with the man, with Hill hardly a foot behind, and the other woman following close behind after her, hands wrapped around her back in a solider like fashion as her eyes did their best to track all the hustle and bustle surrounding them. The quartet was mostly silent as they reached an elevator and headed down to the lower levels.

"Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago," Phil said, eventually continuing his explanations, as they weaved between the layout of the floor as well as the multitude of people running past.

"NASA didn't authorize Selvig to pull the test phase," Fury added, almost objectively.

"He wasn't testing it, he wasn't even in the room. Spontaneous advancement," Coulson clarified, also somewhat feeling the need to defend the scientist, considering he was partially responsible for pulling him into this project in the first place.

"It just turned itself on?" Hill spoke up for the first time, the wariness evident in her tone.

There was a small snort from their last member, "Well that can't be anything good," she muttered sarcastically, without any real intention to be heard though Fury cast what was best described as a "don't start" look towards her, before turning back to the other senior agents.

"What are the energy levels now?" he asked.

"Climbing. When Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered the evac." Coulson replied, without any doubt that it had been the right call to make. 

"How long to get everyone out? 

"Campus should be clear in the next half hour."

There was hardly a moment to contemplate before the Director instructed a brief, "Do better." Even with that alone, Phil knew his orders were clear, and gave a nod to his superiors. Though as he moved to leave them behind, he did his best to give another half smile to the girl, which she still was quick to return. While it was tempting to do a more proper exchange, there simply wasn't the time.

With Coulson gone, the three that remained continued lower into the compound.

"Sir, evacuation maybe futile," Hill spoke up again, not necessarily wanting to be pessimistic, but it was her job to lay out the facts.

"We should tell them to go back to sleep?" Fury responded incredulously. 

Maria's lips were set into a thin line. "If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance," she stressed again.

"I need you to make sure that phase two prototypes are shipped out," he said, a sudden change in topic. And while neither was paying attention, their silent follower distinctly raised her eyebrows at the name.

"Sir, is that really a priority right now?" she interrupted, with as much respect as possible. 

Fury paused, turning to them from his spot on the stairs. "Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on," he continued firmly.  
"Clear out the tech below. Every piece of phase 2 on a truck and gone."

Maria's face was impassive as always, though there was a slight pause in her step that suggested she had considered saying something else, but then thought better of it. "Yes, sir," she said evenly, almost casually walking past him, and turned her attention to the two uniformed men in front of her. "Come with me," and they immediately stepped forward.

The younger brunette moved to keep in line with Fury, but he raised his hand slightly to stop her. "Foxtrot, you're with Hill as well," he instructed. For a moment there was a faint hint of questioning on her face, but she said nothing and gave a quick nod instead. Given the tone of the conversation thus far, she knew they were on a time crunch and now wasn't the time to be picky. "Yes sir," she replied as well, taking some long strides to move in-between the other agents until she was basically shoulder-to-shoulder with Maria.

They continued in silence until they reached what appeared to be their destination, one of the fortified storage units. Hill stepped forward to place in a code and a biometric scan as the door opened, revealing a large amount of metal cases on the other side. "So…phase 2?" Foxtrot began to ask, stepping inside the room and tapping lightly on one of the surfaces.

Maria brushed her hand off the case and gave her a sharp look. "It's above your level, Fox," she said sternly. "Meaning no opening, just facilitate in the transport."

Fox rolled her eyes lightly. "All the cool stuff is 'above my level'" she half mumbled, but didn't put up more of an argument than that as she carefully grabbed one of the handles and started to walk towards the underground loading bay.

Surprisingly despite all the chaos that was going on, the pile that consisted of the "Phase 2" material was quickly cleared out and soon Fox and Maria were the only two left standing on the loading dock. The younger woman's demeanor was getting a little more antsy as another shudder ran through the building and a small cloud of dust came down on them. The fact that they were working against a clock was really starting to sink in.

Fox's demeanor seemed to brighten a little bit when a small group suddenly strolled through the opening, and she recognized one instantly. "Barton!" she tried to greet, happy to see one of her mentors since he'd been cooped up on this assignment for so long. Her smile fell a little as he barely even glanced her way, heading straight for the front seat of one of the remaining cars.

"Need these vehicles," he said flatly.

"Who's that guy?" Maria asked, and Fox was instantly aware of the dark haired man that had helped himself to the open bench in the flatbed. He similarly barely acknowledged them, but Fox couldn't ignore the certain chill on the back of her neck as she tried to get a read on him. Something wasn't right here.

Then there was the beep of Maria's walkie talkie as the static voice of Fury was heard saying, "Hill do you copy? Barton is…"

Fox locked eyes with Maria for a split second in understanding, as the latter quickly did a tuck and roll out of the way, and Fox immediately raised her hands. There was a sudden shimmer as she created what best resembled a large square covering the upper half of her body that was a deep orange in color. As bullets were fired from Clint's gun, they either deflected off the metal crates Hill had moved behind, or ricocheted off the construct Fox had made.

She thought she saw a small look of surprise on the green and gold armored man in the back upon seeing her abilities, but she didn't have time to dwell on it as the car sped away. "What the hell?" she yelled, to no one in particular. Why was Clint shooting at them?

"Car, now!" Maria yelled back, sprinting from her covered position to the driver's side as Fox did the same to climb into the passenger's seat of the jeep, her eyes still slightly wide as she thought about what just happened. "It's gotta be an act of some kind right? I mean, there's no way that Clint would just be-"

"Focus, Agent," Maria commanded through gritted teeth, putting the gas pedal to the floor as she did a sharp turn to the left to go through one of the side tunnels. She meant to cut them off.

Fox gave another light nod, not out of a lack of something to say, but because there were still a million thoughts running through her head and she was having trouble picking just one. Deep down she knew the difference between Hawkeye shooting to kill between Hawkeye simply trying to maintain a cover, or something along those lines. That firing had been for real and it freaked her out more than she would like to admit.

In one last burst of speed, Maria drove through the entryway into the main path, pulling out in front of the jeep that Clint was driving, and she did a hard pull on the break to spin them around. Fox gritted her teeth, clinging to the bar for dear life as she still felt like she would be flung out of her seat any second. The maneuver worked, though, as without a moment to waste they were facing the others as they drove instead.

If they were surprised it certainly didn't last long, as their opponents sped up themselves to ram the front end. The jolt made Fox lose balance briefly in her seat, though Maria didn't hesitate to pull out her gun and start shooting. The younger agent had half a mind to protest since it was her friend in the opposing driver's chair, but a part of her knew that Hill was doing what she had to.

A quick nudge had their jeep suddenly on the chase again, and as Maria leveled them out with two hands on the steering wheel, she barked a one-word command, "Fox!"

"I know, I'm on it!" she yelled back, quickly regaining her balance so that she could stand up and reach the upper half of her body over the frame of the car. Raising her right hand, there was a shimmer of orange light again as she created a small, dagger-like object hovering above her hand. She shot one quickly towards the wheels in order to slow it down, but as the jeep made a last-second shift it pierced the metal above it instead.

"Damn it," she cursed, quickly creating another one of the projectiles, but her original miss had alerted the dark haired man in the back to her attempts. As she launched another "dagger" he shot a short steam of blue energy from his staff, and as the two collided they both canceled each other out.

Her hazel eyes immediately found his own with a glare, and much to her annoyance he mostly seemed amused. She fired one last round, though he blocked it with the same effect, before the ceiling began to crumble rapidly above them. It was only a matter of seconds until their line of sight was completely blocked, and a large piece of rock started to drop on top of them.

"Maria!" Fox shouted, her voice now more worried than anything, as she quickly cast a shield above them both. The weight of the debris was still too much and the jeep skidded before tipping over sideways, but the barrier was at least enough to keep the worst of it away from their bodies.

Fox groaned slightly at the initial impact, no doubt there would be a bruise on her shoulder tomorrow. When the damage had settled, the orange light dissipated, and she wriggled her way out of the car, on instinct starting to sprint once more towards the direction that Clint's vehicle had disappeared to, but it was short lived as she realized there was no way they could catch up to them now.

Her attention was pulled away, as the walkie talkie crackled to life once more. "Directory Fury, do you copy?" She felt a small wave of relief at hearing Coulson's voice. At least one of them for sure made it out okay. The feeling was doubled when she heard the Director's replied. "The Tesseract is with the hostile force. I have men down. Hill?"

The young agent soon moved back to Hill's side, ready to offer help, but despite her own bumps and bruises Maria appeared to have little problem maneuvering out of the wrecked car. "A lot of men still under, don't know how many survivors…but Agent Foxtrot is still with me," she said, meeting her gaze.

Fox swallowed visibly, looking back towards the wreckage behind them, only now fully realizing how close a call that could have been, and instantly feeling a weight in her heart as she knew not everyone had been so lucky.

"I want every living soul not needing rescue looking for that briefcase," was the static order that followed.

"Roger that," Hill replied evenly.

"Coulson, get back to base. This is a level seven. As of right now, we are at war."

The phrase was said so simple, but despite the distance that separated all of them, she was sure they the sudden shift in the air was a universal feeling. Fox ran a tense hand through her hair. This was a situation she had been preparing herself for, for years really, but it was hard to get a grasp on the reality of it all…especially when most of her mind was still trying to understand what the hell had happened with Barton.

The beep of the walkie grabbed her attention one last time. "Foxtrot, do you have a clear exit to the outside?" For a second she was admittedly surprised at being directly addressed, though gathered herself in time to catch the device as Maria tossed it to her. She followed the road with her eyes at was able to note the solid metal gates were still open. "Yes, Director, I do," she said pressing down the talk button, a hint of confusion in her voice.

"Then hurry out. You're with me this next trip."

She let out a sharp breath. This should be interesting. "Yes sir."


End file.
